Democrats don't have answers

September 14, 2012|Kingsley Guy, COLUMNIST

At the Republican nominating convention in Tampa, a digital "debt clock" kept updating instantaneously the level of federal red ink as it pushed mercilessly toward the $16 trillion mark. The national debt passed that milestone during the Democratic convention in Charlotte. Not surprisingly, the Democrats didn't have a debt clock. The debt has grown by 50 percent since Barack Obama took office, and they hoped no one would notice.

The Democrats, however, dutifully declared from time to time during their gathering that the nation must get its financial house in order. Unfortunately, they were all but mute on how to accomplish this, other than calling for higher tax rates on the wealthy. Everybody other than the economic illiterate understand this will do little to balance the federal budget, but it fits well into Obama's class-warfare re-election theme.

In a throw-away line in his acceptance speech, the president also endorsed the debt reduction principles set down by his own Bowles-Simpson commission. But if that's truly the case, why did he turn his back on the commission after it released its report nearly two years ago? Does the president really endorse Bowles-Simpson and its tax and entitlement reforms, or is he prevaricating? That's a question Mitt Romney should ask the president during their debates.

The ironic aspect of all the convention blather is that the two political parties spent $136 million in federal money to help bankroll their made-for-TV and the Internet extravaganzas. You'd think that if the leadership of the parties really means what it says about fiscal responsibility, the first thing Congress would do is end convention subsidies. The conventioneers could still get together to wear their silly hats and shout their silly slogans, but taxpayers wouldn't be footing a large part of the bill.

Don't expect that to happen. The quadrennial nominating gatherings have lost all their functional meaning, since the presidential choices are known long before the conventions, But they're a publicity bonanza for the parties. Carefully scripted speeches read from TelePrompters are useful in stirring up the true believers and the gullible. Political parties, however, aren't the government, and they shouldn't be treating the federal Treasury as their personal piggy bank.

My dueling columnist colleague Stephen L. Goldstein thinks the GOP convention heralded the end of the Republican Party. He's correct that Republicans face challenges that, if not met, will lead to the party's demise. Republicans must do a better job reaching out to a larger cross-section of voters. In the ranks of top elected and appointed officials, the GOP has a solid roster of women and minorities, but in the trenches, the ranks are too thin.

The Democrats, however, are stuck in the 20th century. Their message that Americans are beholden to the state, and that central planners can work miracles isn't going to resonate in the individualistic age of iPads and smart phones. As for buying votes through federal handouts, that strategy won't work for much longer since the money has run out. The time-honored Democratic approach of scaring senior citizens into voting for them by claiming Republicans will undermine Medicare and Social Security won't hold up either, for the same reason.

The nation has arrived at a critical stage in history. The two major parties had better rise to the occasion right now, or a third will arise to challenge them.